Global Desk Head – Panamax

Why explore

• An exciting opportunity to work with one of the world's leading multinational corporations

• An opportunity to develop your career and lead a significant global freight portfolio

• Located in Singapore, a global commercial hub for Rio Tinto

About the role

We are looking for a Global Desk Head – Panamax to join Rio Tinto Marine’s global freight leadership team with full P&L accountability for the global Panamax vessel portfolio. You will play a pivotal leadership role to achieve best-in-class freight trading and chartering outcomes for the business.

This is a senior leadership role requiring deep expertise across physical chartering, freight derivatives, and market positioning. You will be responsible for setting and executing the Panamax portfolio strategy, actively managing freight exposure, and optimising portfolio performance across market cycles whilst ensuring highest levels of service and safety for internal and external stakeholders.

A critical component of this role is the reliable and efficient provision of freight to Rio Tinto’s operations, ensuring that vessel supply consistently meets operational requirements. Delivering the highest levels of service, safety, and reliability to internal customers is fundamental, requiring close alignment with supply chain, operations, and product groups.

You will lead a team of experienced charterers, driving commercial outcomes through a combination of market insight, disciplined risk management, and proactive engagement in both physical and paper freight markets, while balancing trading performance with operational excellence.

Reporting to the General Manager, you will:

• Own and lead the global Panamax freight portfolio, including strategy development, execution, and performance delivery

• Ensure consistent and reliable freight coverage for Rio Tinto operations, meeting volume requirements while maintaining high service levels and operational flexibility.

• Define and implement trading strategies across physical chartering and FFA markets to optimise cost/earnings and manage freight exposure.

• Actively position the portfolio based on market views, balancing spot, period, and derivative exposure to capture arbitrage and optionality while safeguarding supply continuity.

• Drive commercial value through sophisticated freight trading decisions, including cargo-vessel matching, route optimisation, and timing strategies.

• Lead market engagement with shipowners, shipyards, operators, brokers, and financial counterparties to originate and execute opportunities and secure high-quality tonnage.

• Develop and oversee freight risk frameworks, including exposure limits, hedging strategies, and scenario analysis across volatile market conditions.

• Integrate insights from market analysis, macro trends, asset valuations and supply-demand fundamentals into actionable trading decisions that support both profitability and service reliability.

• Collaborate closely with internal stakeholders (commercial, operations, derivatives, analytics) to maximise end-to-end value across the supply chain and ensure seamless execution.

• Partner with voyage operations and vetting teams to uphold safety, reliability, and performance standards across the Panamax fleet.

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing Panamax desk with a strong trading mindset, accountability, and customer service orientation.

• Ensure all trading and chartering activities are conducted within Rio Tinto’s governance, safety, and compliance frameworks.

About you

To be successfully considered for this role, you will have:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, International Trade, Marketing, Supply Chain or Maritime/Logistics.

• Minimum 15 years of experience in dry bulk freight trading and chartering, ideally with significant exposure to Panamax markets.

• Demonstrated track record of managing and optimising a freight trading book (physical and/or derivatives).

• Strong working knowledge of FFA markets, freight risk management tools, and trading systems.

• Proven ability to balance commercial performance with operational service delivery in a global environment.

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and leadership skills.

• Experience with safety aspects of dry bulk vessels (beneficial).

What we offer

Be recognised for your contribution, your thinking and your hard work, and go home knowing you’ve helped the world progress.

• A work environment where safety is always the number one priority

• A competitive salary package with annual cash incentive awards for eligible employees

• Career development & education assistance to further your ambitions

• Access top tier family-friendly health and medical programs and pension plan

• Wellbeing benefits

• Generous Rio Tinto employee share program

• Employee Assistance Program

• Ongoing individual wellbeing support for you and your family for personal and professional matter

• Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave)

Where you will be working

Based in Singapore and integrated with Rio Tinto’s global commercial network, you will operate at the centre of global freight trading activity, working closely with product groups and commercial teams to optimise value across the supply chain—balancing trading performance with reliable service delivery to Rio Tinto’s operations.

Application Deadline: 14 April 2026 (Rio Tinto reserves the right to remove job postings prior to the stated closing date)

Please note, in order to be successfully considered for this role you must complete all pre-screening questions.

Rio Tinto does not accept unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles from recruiters or employment agencies. Rio Tinto will not consider or agree to payment of any referral compensation or recruiter fee relating to unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles. Rio Tinto reserves the right to hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles, including those submitted to hiring managers, are deemed to be the property of Rio Tinto.”

About Rio Tinto
 

Rio Tinto is a leading global mining and materials company. We operate in 35 countries where we produce iron ore, copper, aluminium, critical minerals, and other materials needed for the global energy transition and for people, communities, and nations to thrive.
 

We have been mining for 150 years and operate with knowledge built up across generations and continents. Our purpose is finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs – striving for innovation and continuous improvement to produce materials with low emissions and to the right environmental, social and governance standards. But we can’t do it on our own, so we’re focused on creating partnerships to solve problems, create win-win situations and meet opportunities.

Respect and Inclusion

At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, mature workers, people with disabilities and people from different cultural backgrounds.

We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable to be themselves. We want our people to feel that all voices are heard, all cultures respected and that a variety of perspectives are not only welcome – they are essential to our success. We treat each other fairly and with dignity regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or anything else that makes us different.

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